Improvement in lap-boards



H; a. sTEPP.

La p-Board.

INVENTOR WITNESSES N. PETEnS. Prim-LITHOGHAFNER. WASHINGTQN. D. C.

HENRIETTA G. STEPP, 0F SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN LAP-BOARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. `166.,4IQ39S5 dated July 27, 1875 application filed i December 18, 1874. I

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRIETTA G. STEPP, of Somerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Lap-Board, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to lap-boards for professional dressmakers and others, and its primary object is to provide convenient means for cutting strips of silk, cloth, or other material for trimmings and other purposes, whether bias or otherwise, with superior rapidity, ease, and uniformity, by ordinary hand shears or scissors.

The invention consists in the provision of a lap-board with parallel grooves adapted to receive and guide the scissors or shears, in combination with a clamp or cloth-holder at one edge of the board, with or without a measuring-scale at one end of the grooves.

The invention consists further in a peculiar construction of the clamp or cloth-holder, whereby it is adapted to be locked by a simple button, its pressure being graduated or rendered elastic by a facing of rubber or analogous material.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure l is a front perspective view of a lap-board, illustrating this invention. Fig. 2 is a rear perspective view of the same. Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the line 3 3, Fig. 2,

showing the clamp or cloth-holder in its different positions by .full and dotted lines.

The main board or board proper of this improved manufacture may be of the usual outline represented, having an indentation, a, in its front edge to receive the person, so as to facilitate supporting the board on the lap. It is made of wood, 1heavy pasteboard, or other suitable light material.

To facilitate cutting strips of silk, cloth, or other material for trimming and other purposes of any desired width, and bias or otherwise, with rapidity and uniformity, the upper surface of the board is constructed or provided with parallel grooves b, adapted to receive and guide a pair of ordinary'scissors or hand-shears. These grooves are, by preference, arranged latitudinally, parallel to the general plane of the front of the board, and at equal distances apart. They may, if preferred, be arranged otherwise. A clamp, c, provides for holding the goods during the operation of cutting strips therefrom. Any displacement of the goods is thus prevented. For cutting bias strips the cloth or other material may be folded on a diagonal line, the fold placed beneath the clamp, and the main body of the goods then turned back, so as to expose a single thickness above the grooves; or tWo or more thicknesses may be cut simultaneously, and the goods may be applied and adjusted in any preferred way.

For indicating the width of strip which is being cut, and the total width of the cloth on Athe board so as to facilitate cutting strips of any particular Width, or the division of the cloth into any required number of strips, a measuring-scale, d, is, by preference, provided at one end of the grooves, crossing the same at right angles. This may, however, in some cases be dispensed with, or the grooves may be numbered or otherwise marked so that they shall constitute a scale in themselves.

The clamp c, for the general purposes of this invention, may be of any approved form adapted to hold different fabrics smoothly on theI board with sufficient force to prevent their accidental displacement, and more than one clamp may be employed, if preferred. By preference, a single clamp, c, is attached to the straight rear edge of the common form of board by hinges e, and constructed with a straight surface, f, in line with the rear edge g of the board when the clamp is depressed or in use. A single central button, h, is thus adapted to lock the clamp in depressed or effective position. This button is attached bya pivotal screw to the edge of the board. To equalize'the pressure of the clamp on goodsV of different thicknesses beneath the same, or to render its pressure elastic so as to adapt it to hold different thicknesses of goods, the effective surface or edge of the clamp is clothed or otherwise provided with an elastic strip, i, of rubber or analogous material, which may be tacked and cemented, or otherwise secured thereto. In -the illustration the rear edge of the board is upturned, and its upper surface is beveled, and the clamping-bar is beveled, so as to form a thin FIG..V

means of the scissors or shears, substantially as herein shown and described. Y Y Y Y 2. The combination of the parallel guidegrooves b b, clamp c, and measuring-scale d,

"the latter being arranged at right angles to the guide-grooves, as herein specified7 for the` purposes set forth.

3. In combination with a lap-board, the clamp or cloth-holder c, elastic strip al, and button h, constructed and arranged substantiallyy as herein shown and described.

H. G. STEPP. Witnesses:

J. J. G. SMITH,V Y' WILLIAM H. PIERCE. 

